I'm stealing your table Akkarin:
|Ancient|Classic|Medieval|Renaissance|Industrial|Modern|Atomic|Information
Shock
(Melee)|Warrior|Swordsman||
Grenadier
||Infantry||Mechanized Infantry
Line
(cheap resourceless, anti cav)|Spearman||Pikeman||Musketman|
Infantry
||
Mechanised Infantry
Heavy Cav|Chariot||Knight|||Tank||Modern Armor
Light Cav||Horseman|||Cavalry||Helicopter|
Ranged, Standard|Slinger, Archer||Crossbowman||Field Cannon||
Mortar
|
Siege||Catapult||Bombard||Artillery||Rocket Artillery
Support |Battering Ram | Siege Tower | Military Engineer || Medic | Baloon,
AT
| AA,
Machine Gun
|
Bazooka
Changes I want to see and/or make in red:
I like a lot of this, but if I may, there are some 'nomenclature' changes and Upgrade changes that I'd like to suggest:
Grenadier = old musketman, requires Niter, bonus against spears/pikes/muskets
'Grenadiers' were actually Siege Weapons, using gunpowder grenades to clear the defenses before an assault, which became elite assault infantry. Better to keep the old and familiar term Musketman for the matchlock musket-carrying soldier that the Civ VI graphic depicts. The difference I'd make is that he and his successors with 'gunpowder' shoulder weapons would get a Civ V-Zulu Impi-style 'fire before Melee' capability. In the case of the Musketman, his melee factor would actually be lower than the Pikeman, but his fire factor would (normally) make up for it.
Musketman is a new unit with a flintlock musket and a socket bayonet, think Napoleon line infantry. Str 60, no resource requirement, available at military science. That makes it as strong as pikeman against cavalry, but able to stand up to other units of similar era. Relationship between grenadier and musketman is the same as between swordsman and pikeman. Redcoats and Imperial Guard replace this unit
At the time it was introduced (1680 - 1700) the flintlock musket was called a Fusil, and the original troops armed with it were called Fusiliers. It's a good descriptive term, much better than the generic 'Line Infantry' sometimes used. Everything else should stay the same, except that I'd add the Pre Fire ability as for the Musketman, and 'tweak' the melee factors accordingly AND both Musketman and Pikeman can Upgrade to this unit: the Fusil marked the introduction of Universal Infantry all armed with the same weapon, and the demise of 'mixed units' of pikemen and musketmen, swordsmen and pikemen, and all the other Renaissance combinations
Mortar = old machine gun
AT, Bazooka, Machine gun are new support units specialised against tanks and infantry.
Don't need Mortars or Machine-guns, see below:
Here comes my Major Change: Make the Bombard a Support Unit. Bombards had one purpose only: they made all previous Walls and fortifications obsolete, and forced governments to spend massive amounts of money to build whole new types of fortifications around their cities - the Italian Trace or Vauban or Star Forts or what the game, I suspect, is calling Renaissance Walls. Bombards stacked with a melee unit next to an Ancient or Medieval wall would negate all of its effects.
BUT Bombards took hours to reload - they have no effect on military units unless the enemy is cooperative enough to sit down in front of the Bombard and have lunch...
Make AA Gun and 'AT' (Missile) also Support units, in the Modern and Atomic Eras respectively. That gives the game a Support unit of varying capability in each Era from Ancient to Atomic.
Add a Scout/Ranger Upgrade to either the Atomic or Information Era (Atomic would be historical, but Information would be more symmetrical for the game): SEAL is purely American, so I suggest calling them 'Special Forces' - they'd combine the capabilities of scouting, artillery/air spotting, and Paratroops - maybe throw in some Spy attributes as well...
Finally, the Ranged and Siege lines should merge at Artillery, just as the 'Line' and 'Shock' infantry lines merge at Fusiliers. This greatly simplifies the late-game Upgrades and eliminates the need for units like Machine-guns and Mortars that are, in fact, an integral part of every Infantry unit - in fact, they are the biggest difference between modern (WWII) infantry and the 'riflemen', 'fusiliers' and 'musketmen' who came before: it's heavy weapons like them, not the weapon carried by the individual, that do most of the killing.
This results in late game land forces that are actually composed of far fewer regular units than in previous Civ games: one basic melee infantry type, one basic ranged/siege type, armor, helicopters and special forces for your 'specialized' types, and support units for flavor where you need it.
Am I the only one who thinks those make more sense?
Not at all. But as has already been noted in this Thread, we're not likely to see any of these changes until a later DLC: I think they're settled in to go with the mistakes they've already made...
